Prime Minister Boris Johnson will return to Brussels next month to take command at the trade negotiating table, after tensions have increased between the UK and EU in recent weeks.
The EU’s chief trade negotiator Michel Barnier has said that he did not like David Frost’s “tone” when the British negotiator called for Brussels to ditch its “low-quality” deal offer.
In a scathing letter to Brussels bureaucrat Michel Barnier, David Frost criticised the European Union’s offer of a “low-quality trade agreement” which contains provisions that no “democratic country could sign”.
Negotiating sources on both sides of the English Channel have admitted that UK-EU trade talks could collapse in June over fishing and regulations.
First Secretary of State Dominic Raab has said that the UK must “double down” on agreeing to a deal with the EU by the end of this year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson is expected to take charge of UK-EU trade negotiations personally and will tell Brussels that its demands on fishing rights and regulatory alignment are unrealistic.
David Lidington, the former de-facto deputy prime minister to Theresa May, claimed that an extension to the Brexit transition period was “inevitable” because of coronavirus.
Boris Johnson would say “no” to an extension to the transition period if the European Union asks for one, the prime minister’s spokesman said after the head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) called for a delay.
British and EU negotiators have agreed to continue Brexit trade talks via videoconferencing due to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.
Despite calls from leftists and Europhiles to extend the Brexit transition period because of coronavirus, the government has said that it is sticking by the legally mandated exit date of December 31st, 2020.
A spokesman for Prime Minister Johnson said that the UK has “made up its mind” over what it wants from a post-Brexit trade deal with the EU, the remarks coming after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that Britain must choose either close alignment to the EU or lose access to the Single Market.
The EU’s chief negotiator Michel Barnier said that the UK cannot have the same trading arrangements as Canada because Britain is a major economy on Europe’s doorstep and poses a competitive threat.
The government has said that 2019 was a “record-breaking” year for British exports, with a 13.6 per cent increase in exports to non-EU countries on the year before while the trade deficit with the European Union has widened.
MEPs have voted overwhelmingly in favour of making the United Kingdom obey by European Union regulations when the transition period ends in December 2020 as the cost of Brussels agreeing on a free trade agreement with London.
European Union member states want to be able to suspend elements of a future trade deal with the UK as part of their arsenal of punishments should Britain disobey rulings by a dispute panel overseeing the agreement.
Cabinet minister Michael Gove has backed comments by Boris Johnson’s Treasury secretary that the UK does not need a deal with the EU to trade with it.
Ireland’s prime minister, Leo Varadkar, has told the UK to “tone down” its “nationalistic rhetoric” during forthcoming negotiations with the European Union.
Leave campaigner Nigel Farage has said that the European Union is “terrified” of having a competitor on its doorstep.
The EU’s chief negotiator on a UK trade agreement, Michel Barnier, has said there will be no trade deal without EU access to British territorial fishing waters.
Boris Johnson has called for a Canada-style FTA with the EU and said that he would rather accept tariffs than restrictive regulations.
Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid has repeated the Conservative government’s position that the UK will diverge from EU regulations after the Brexit transition period.
The EU’s Brexit negotiator warned that the UK would need to stick to EU regulations in order to secure a trade agreement with the bloc.
The European Union (EU) will be hit harder than Britain in the immediate aftermath of a ‘no deal’ Brexit, Brussels officials have conceded, as the bloc comes under pressure to soften its negotiating stance.
Brussels must resist the urge to “punish” Britain for its decision to leave the bloc, Hungary has said, warning that failure to secure a comprehensive post-Brexit trade deal would be “devastating” for European Union (EU) economies.
